Numerous mechanical games and puzzles have been devised which comprise a basic 3-dimensional cubic structure. Many of these games, like the one shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,613,681, are essentially 3-dimensional adaptations of the popular 2-dimensional children's game known as “Tic-Tac-Toe” or “Naughts and Crosses”. The '681 patent discloses a game comprising a frame for resiliently retaining up to 27 spherical balls in a 3×3×3 array. The balls are inserted into the frame, and the “score” of the game is dependent on the arrangement of the balls within the frame. If any of the balls are ejected from the frame during game play, they are not considered in the scoring.
The game of the present invention comprises a frame which resiliently retains a plurality of game pieces in a 3-dimensional array. The present invention is distinguished from the prior art in that the scoring of the game is not dependent on the arrangement of the pieces within the frame, but rather on which pieces are ejected from the frame on each turn.